Also, if you unlock your iPhone with your carrier's permission, then they send the authorization to Apple and the next time you sync it through iTunes, Apple notices it's approved to be unlocked and processes it with an update. With this capability, they could easily brick the stolen iPhone.
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Actually to unlock the phone you have to restore it. So not quite that easy to brick a phone.

And before they do it they would have to be super careful to make sure it really was stolen and someone wasn't just screwing with a boyfriend that pissed you off

Theft is great for Apple. Every time one is stolen Apple gets to sell a replacement.

Apple could eliminate this problem overnight. If the phone could be remotely "bricked" some internal fuse is blown that renders the iPhone useless until you send it back to Apple for repair. No one would take a phone if they know it would be useless in a day or two.

I think Apple sells more phones because of theft

It always amazes me when I read assumptions like this. This is so far from the truth its ridiculous.

Theft is great for Apple. Every time one is stolen Apple gets to sell a replacement.

Apple could eliminate this problem overnight. If the phone could be remotely "bricked" some internal fuse is blown that renders the iPhone useless until you send it back to Apple for repair. No one would take a phone if they know it would be useless in a day or two.

This is great that Apple is doing this, but the police would rather pull you over and ticket you for going 10 over the speed limit than find your stolen crap, even when you help them.

Although I'm sorry this happened to you (it did to me too when my 1st MBP was stolen in '09), it's not always the case. I know a mobile Apple Tech guy who had a quite a tale to share when his computer was stolen. Being as tech savvy as he is, he ended up tracking the thief using Mac Help Mate & the Prey Project. He shared his progress on his FB page. It didn't take long for 500 odd of us following his story, to become utterly engrossed in his progress. At first police detectives didn't seem interested in helping, but once he showed him all the info he'd collected, they were on board.

Eventually, through tracking the computer using the software, monitoring the thief's online activity and collecting pics of the thief in his house via the computer's camera, they were able to apprehend the guy & get the computer back. The story made the nightly news. It was a pretty wild ride to watch unfold.

If anyone's interested, you can read this wild tale on his blog. I highly recommend it, it's quite a read.

Errr... correct me if I'm wrong... but the only ones who could possibly track a phone are, in fact, the mobile operators.

Any phone shall register on a network to get access to it, and triangulation is a well known procedure for location (specially in cases of emergencies when the person requesting help doesn't know the precise area or cannot even say it for any reason).
So... honestly... Apple is not doing anything more than probably translating the user of a phone (via its Apple's account) to an IMEI that is then given to the Police who then turns to the mobile operator for the location of the phone...

It's about time that they do something like this but how about expanding it across the country? They obviously have the technology to track stolen devices and they're finally taking a proactive role in retrieving a stolen device. Knowing how hot their products would be, Apple should have been doing this from the beginning.

In Oakland, CA you almost have to get murdered to have the police bother to respond. But in many jurisdictions they will not concern themselves with thefts amounting into the thousands of dollars.

Maybe the NYPD is a model police department with the resources, one that really cares. Although one might suspect they are up to something else.

Presumably in Syria one does not have the option of International Mobile Station Equipment Station, or the government that capability. But if it did, it would be worth the life of anyone presently opposing it to use their iPhone, even possibly no more than carry one unshielded. Perfect targeting device—towards your head with missiles, artillery and so forth.

Well the Dallas PD doesn't give a darn about stolen Apple devices. I'm glad to know someone does. My friend was eventually able to reclaim his retina MacBook Pro thanks to Apple's security features, but the PD refused to do anything about it.

Although I'm sorry this happened to you (it did to me too when my 1st MBP was stolen in '09), it's not always the case. I know a mobile Apple Tech guy who had a quite a tale to share when his computer was stolen. Being as tech savvy as he is, he ended up tracking the thief using Mac Help Mate & the Prey Project. He shared his progress on his FB page. It didn't take long for 500 odd of us following his story, to become utterly engrossed in his progress. At first police detectives didn't seem interested in helping, but once he showed him all the info he'd collected, they were on board.

Eventually, through tracking the computer using the software, monitoring the thief's online activity and collecting pics of the thief in his house via the computer's camera, they were able to apprehend the guy & get the computer back. The story made the nightly news. It was a pretty wild ride to watch unfold.

If anyone's interested, you can read this wild tale on his blog. I highly recommend it, it's quite a read.

Very interesting. And perhaps it will just take time to make these things happen. It sounds like in New York the problem is so severe that the police are taking a more proactive position. Good for them. We have the technology to solve these kinds of problems, if we can also have the will to solve them then we could avoid a lot of issues. It will be interesting to watch.

Actually to unlock the phone you have to restore it. So not quite that easy to brick a phone.

And before they do it they would have to be super careful to make sure it really was stolen and someone wasn't just screwing with a boyfriend that pissed you off

Yes, you have to restore it to unlock it, but I'm just illustrating that when you sync with iTunes, it goes straight to Apple to track is all. Maybe Apple tracks this when you try to download or update apps or media and knows the IMEI number. If not, they could consider that.

Very interesting. And perhaps it will just take time to make these things happen. It sounds like in New York the problem is so severe that the police are taking a more proactive position. Good for them. We have the technology to solve these kinds of problems, if we can also have the will to solve them then we could avoid a lot of issues. It will be interesting to watch.

Indeed, Nunyabinez, I agree.

It's sad it gets to this point but I do find it encouraging that things are progressing, especially with the technology. The key is keeping up to date on the available info & technology. In the case of my own MBP theft, the police informed me thefts of this kind are going to worsen due to the state of the economy, which obviously makes sense. Hopefully this turn of events with Apple & the NYPD working in concert, will encourage more city's police departments to follow.

I have a dumb question, I recently got a new iMac and set up the iCloud tracking for it and my 3Gs, I tested the local my ... from my 3Gs to see the iMac and it located it but apparently didn't wake it up, does it do it in silence in the back ground without tuning the screen on?

I am one of the 3,890 who had their iPhones stolen in NYC last year. It happened in February 2012, and I filed a police report but the police refused to do anything about it because I didn't actually see the person who took my phone (couldn't profile them). Although I know it was a theft because via find my iphone they took the phone with them to Brooklyn.

Anyway, is there anywhere I can report this again? Are they actually doing something now? I still have all of the serial info and stuff from my Apple receipt. It was an unlocked iPhone 4S 64gb that I paid over $900 for .

I don't think Apple in general would want to assume that someone is turning in a stolen phone for a genius repair. Anyway, they are not the police - they are in the business of pleasing customers. They'd rather take a happy customer with a stolen one, and would happily take that customer who got their phone stolen and offer them to buy a new one.